Archive for Sick Days

There is this thing that goes around Omaha every year that even the doctors call – The Crud. It is something like a cold. And something like the flu. Toss in something like a sinus infection and you get something that is a little like everything and yet none of those things. It is viral and you pretty much have to ride it out. Only it gets passed around more than a juicy piece of gossip in the tabloids. So it constantly changes. If you live alone and clean house every day and stay away from stores and clean your desk space often, you ‘may’ be less likely to get it.

This is how I’ve been spending most of my time since the end of November. So I’m a bit behind and haven’t found the time to write about anything or blog about anything or do much of anything. I have managed to read a lot. And Sleep a lot. Sleep has taken on a life of its own and deserves to have a capital S.

As in Super Sleep. The Sleep Wars. Sleep Strikes Back. Return of Sleep. Fatal Sleep. Eyes Wide Sleeping. The Sleep of the 50 Foot Woman. The Sleep. The Big Sleep. Indian Jones and the Temple of Sleep. Sleeping on Elm St. Aliens versus Sleep. American Sleep. Well, that last one could be a whole heck of a lot of movies.

I stayed home sick for the last two days and if my budget could have afforded it, I probably would have been there again today. So I maybe catching up on stuff. Or I may be sleeping some more. Hard to tell as I sit here and sniffle. But that could be the cayenne I put in my couscous and tin of chicken breast.

Dreams are a strange concoction of events, movies, books, and random input in your life being sorted and processed by the subconscious. I do think that dreams can have meaning and messages. But these need to be interpreted in the context of your life, not from some kind of dream dictionary. But sometimes a dream is just a dream. Here was my weird one from last night.

I’m working late at work, to get some more sections done on a project. We can work up to 2 hours over time a week in reality. In my dream, this was not a limit. I get the impression I was making up for some time off I took. (in reality, I’m out of sick days and I took an unpaid sick day last week. I was also supposed to go in and work 2 hours OT Saturday and I was too sick to go.)

I wasn’t feeling well so I decided to take a bath. Our cubicles were bigger and for some reason, instead of a desk section behind me, I had a bathtub and t.v. I then fell asleep in the bathtub. (this weekend, I kept wanting to take a bath but took showers instead. Sunday, I went to take a bath and decided a nap sounded better. I slept about 5 hours. It was a LONG nap.)

The cubicles have an extra wall section that is hinged and works as a sort of door. I hear the cleaning crew come in so I get up and get dressed. One of the cleaners asks me to call his pastor because they need some money for gas and baby food. I call and leave a message.

It is very late yet there were a lot of people working. There was an entire accounting department (that doesn’t exist) that worked overnight shifts. (I suspect this is from me watching way to many episodes of Supernatural, back to back, on Netflix almost every day.)

I finish my tasks and turn around to find something on the floor inside my door. It’s a mystery note from the mysterious pastor saying these people are not who they say they are and they are trying to extort money from him. He had notified authorities but he was giving me a reward. Pinned to it was 50$. This seemed really strange.

I tuck it in my wallet with the rest of my money (for some reason, all my money is in my wallet and not my bank) and put my wallet in my purse. I’ve had a bad feeling about this from the moment they showed up.

The rest of the cleaning crew is leaving and the man and his wife come up to my cube and she is not Hispanic. (Okay, everywhere I’ve worked in the last 6 years has had Hispanic cleaning crews. I’m not trying to stereotype. This is just an element from my life experience in this city.) She was also not part of the cleaning crew. I’m feeling gratified that there are a lot of accountants around right now so I’m not alone with them.

She demands her money. I don’t have ‘her’ money, but I do have a note the pastor left for them. (Why he snuck in and out I don’t know.) It is just a folded bit of paper and I’m trying to find it in all my receipts and cash and stuff. She keeps trying to peek around me and into my purse. She can’t so she finally tells me to hive her my purse.

“No. I am not giving you my purse. You do not need to look in my purse.” (the only direct line I can remember from the dream. She then gets all huffy and tries to act all official and like she is going to try to put me under citizen’s arrest or something. (I watched The Watch, it was rather boring.) I know she plans to rob me. I just cock my head at her and tell her she isn’t touching me or my purse and that I am going to call the police.

An accountant, hearing the argument, stops and hangs out near us. She doesn’t believe I will call the police. I pick up the phone and dial 911. As I’m doing this, I notice there are several bunches of carrots on the floor. I have no idea why they are there. I’m pondering this as the 911 operator answers the phone and I wake up.

What an awful place to wake up. I want to know what happened next. I’m really confused by the carrots. I really just want to know about those carrots. Who care about what would have happened next. I was ready to thow down with that woman.

If you base it on thick, gunky mucus that is 50 shades of green, then it was definitely an infection. They say you can’t possibly get rid of infections without antibiotics, but I’m not so sure. I’ve had pretty good luck with regular irrigation via a netipot. Sure, it takes time and you have to do it, consistently, about every 4 hours. Drink plenty of tea and soup, garlic and cayenne are good tools. So is onion. But the color gets better, the mucus starts to thin some. Eventually you are back to normal.

When you compare it, antibiotic take a good 10 days, you have to take them anywhere from twice a day to every 4 to 6 hours. And then you increase your resistance to then and help create antibiotic resistant strains of various bugs and diseases. Not to mention the rather high odds for women to get ‘other’ infections because antibiotics also kill the good things in our bodies we need.

I think I’ll stick with my netipot.

This fight over who rules my sinuses has been going on since the weekend. Monday I nearly stayed home. Then I decided I would go in and see how things went. Maybe I could leave early if I was getting worse. Well, that was a bad idea. We were short two compilers in another department so the unit I’m in had to help cover for them. There was no leaving early.

Tuesday, I didn’t feel any better. I was in a good mood and decided I could get through the day. I did it Monday, after all. OMG (yes, I really typed it). I ended up leaving in a very cranky mood. It wasn’t triggered by a caller for a change, but by a co-worker.

Wednesday I felt much worse and took the day off. I slept. I got 14 hours of sleep. I also ran out of medicine last night and it was too late to bother going to the store. But good sleep has helped get rid of the sore throat, clear up part of the headache, and green has cleared up to white. My ears are still bothering me. I dislike the way my sinuses drain into the ears.

And I had ‘weird’ dreams all night. Now I normally have weird dreams. These were weird even for me. The result was that I was up early, bright eyed and bushy tailed. But that energy didn’t last long and I’m ready for a nap now. It will be a long day.

But the day is improved by the wonderful, blustery, windy, overcast sky. This morning’s weather was perfect, beautify, just what I like. I love fall and all it brings.

It brings more wind, more clouds, sometimes more rain; leaves turn colors, fall, and make great big piles to bury oneself in. It leads to naked, skeletal tree limbs, reach out, reaching up, clawing at the world and sky. The air turns crisp, and cold, and sharp, and scented with wood smoke and the hint of a future winter.

I love Fall. It is my favorite season. I feel the energy that summer steals from me starting to return. And it marks the return of my favorite holiday. Halloween. I would do Halloween all year round but no one wants to let me.

On the way to work I saw a sign for Spirit of Halloween. It is one of the two Halloween superstores that open up around September. I love these stores. Massive collections of costumes, decorations, party ware, wigs, makeup, hats, masks, the fun never ends.

We also have a local decorating store, called Nobbies that usually has a fantastic Halloween selection. At least it did until last year. That was a rather significant let down. They had their usual large display of costumes. But the actual décor was significantly reduced. I have to admit it was somewhat depressing.

Perhaps even distressing.

Yes, distressing. The spending on Halloween now rivals the spending on Christmas, but last year, thinking people would not be spending as much, the stores stocked less. Much less.

Still, this is another year. Another Dollar. Another Halloween. Another chance to find that perfect item that you can justify leaving out all year long. Another opportunity to increase my skull collection.

They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. I think they seriously underestimate the happiness that can be found in a good skull.